Wombat Awareness Orghttp://wombatawareness.com
The Wombat Awareness Org is the only dedicated registered Southern Hairy Nosed Wombat charity.Fri, 13 Mar 2015 02:00:19 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.9.3South Australia’s Faunal Emblem Soon to Be Homelesshttp://wombatawareness.com/south-australias-faunal-emblem-soon-to-be-homeless/
http://wombatawareness.com/south-australias-faunal-emblem-soon-to-be-homeless/#commentsThu, 12 Feb 2015 01:10:36 +0000http://wombatawareness.com/?p=586read more]]>The Southern Hairy Nosed Wombat, South Australia’s beloved faunal emblem, is under grave threat as their key guardians in their plight for protection, are being forced to relocate from the safe haven they have built over the past 10 years. If they do not find a home in 60 days, 40 wombats will die.

Brigitte Stevens, one of Australian wildlife expert Steve Irwin’s prodigies (and still mentored after 20 years by Steve’s father, Bob), is the founder of the sole dedicated Southerns registered charity Wombat Awareness Organisation.

Without Government support, and with minimal donations, she has single handedly funded the care, rescue of the South Australia’s wombats, even providing food drops for wild populations affected by fire and mange. Having invested her entire life savings to rescue these little Aussie battlers over the last 10 years. With the accounts drained and assets depleated, the pair and the free range population of wombats in their care at a dire impasse, needing to move on from the current site in Callington, with nowhere to relocate to.

Brigitte and her colleague Clare Jans, must leave their self-created sanctuary in just 60 days.

With the lease expiring, and an acreage of at least 20 acres required with a primary and secondary dwelling needed, there is a significant fear they will not find a place to house the marsupials.

“I just can’t live with that”, Brigitte says.

“I felt strongly the species will die out if there isn’t someone looking out for them. So I decided in 2005 that the person to do that was me. I’ve been running WAO without any government funding, and now I need help to keep protecting these vulnerable animals and find them a new place to be rehabilitated”, Brigitte laments.

And in light of the recent bushfires in the surrounding areas and the Government issue of destruction permits, which regularly reduce the numbers of wombats in the wild, Brigitte is now even more determined to ensure safe passage for the dozens currently in her care.

“We need to find a suitable location where we can create a wombat kitchen, to prepare wombat food, bottles etc, a wombat barn- a communal eating area for semi rehabilitated wombats, and a wombat ward, which is essentially a bedroom for wombats with head injuries as a result of being hit by cars”.

Currently Brigitte and Clare run a 24 hour service to rescue any wombat injured or orphaned across South Australia. They have the support of many animal professionals including much loved animal conservationist Bob Irwin, who when asked about Wombat Awareness’ contribution stated, “You couldn’t find anybody more dedicated or passionate about what they’re doing.”

“I’m really concerned that the way the South Australian Government are going at the moment with their destruction permits and the other problems wombats have to face is that if we continue down this path, in a very short period of time, these animals are going to be… endangered.”

WAO is the largest rescue and rehabilitation operation for the Southern Hairy Nosed Wombat, and continues to be the frontline of defence and protection for SA’s much beloved emblem, but now out of time and out of funds, its necessary to literally put it to the universe and see which kind hearted folk and ethically minded companies of SA roll up their sleeves.

“I will not rest until all the little ones are out of harm’s way. I just can’t… I don’t know what to do this time”, she says softly.

]]>http://wombatawareness.com/south-australias-faunal-emblem-soon-to-be-homeless/feed/0Baby steps to rehabilitating this wombat with Mange.http://wombatawareness.com/baby-steps-rehabilitating-wombat-mange/
http://wombatawareness.com/baby-steps-rehabilitating-wombat-mange/#commentsThu, 26 Jun 2014 02:50:19 +0000http://wombatawareness.com/?p=541read more]]>Well our mange man from Friday is going really well. I’m sure this picture gives you an indication of his condition. He is now enjoying 1.2 litres of bottle every day! After each bottle he stretches his legs for a few minutes, this morning he had a breath of fresh air and some winter sun, he then heads straight back to his bed.

He is nearly scabless…a few more days and his skin wil be free to move as it should. Most of the adult wombats we rescue are in this condition either from mange or starvation, they make a full recovery in 6-9months.

Although we start him on milk, his greatest threat at this stage is re-feeding syndrome caused from a too rich diet so he is fed Oxbows Critical Care for herbivores which is very high fibre. It is very costly ($50 for 454 grams which lasts 3 days) but is the only product that has worked effectively in preventing the syndrome. Even the most basic meal can cause the syndrome. So it is a slow and steady progression to satisfy his hunger. We are so glad our work has paid off!

]]>http://wombatawareness.com/baby-steps-rehabilitating-wombat-mange/feed/0Introducing our new baby!http://wombatawareness.com/introducing-our-new-baby/
http://wombatawareness.com/introducing-our-new-baby/#commentsWed, 21 May 2014 10:56:02 +0000http://wombatawareness.com/?p=1read more]]>I just wanted to introduce you to our new baby! Last week was so big for us, in fact, we travelled 1300 kilometres in 3 days undertaking rescues including this dear little 420 gram girl who was saved by a wonderful couple down in Millicent.

A huge thank you to Cathy Cooper for your fantastic idea to help us raise some funds and to everyone who donated! We successfully paid $630 off our milk bill and bought more latex for our teats. We currently have 23 bottles per day so milk is very high on our priority list.

Once again, thank you to everyone for your support which allows us to help these wombats